My gripes for the week

1) Why is it that people get so snotty when they see my car? Even though it's a 1999 Beemer, I still get nasty looks, people try to cut me off or race me and I had one guy give me the finger. Oy!

2) I have this case I took that is high profile. Long story short:

Principal of high school has profiles forged on Myspace.com in his name; one claims he's a child molester and worse. One student owns up to a profile and is suspended for 10 days and put into an alternative learning class as punishment. The ACLU gets involved, calls a press conference and claims the kid had a first amendment right to forge the profile (or make a parody, as they claimed).

Well, the local DA got involved with police and found that the IP addresses of the other forged profiles traced to houses where other students from the same school live. Do they file charges? No. They claim they can't prove who was on the computer on the date/time the profile(s) were forged.

So I offer to talk with the DA or police to help them out with this. Technically, whoever owns the Internet account should be responsible and couldn't they use that angle? I get a phone call from the DA. He's pissed off at me for giving the victim (the principal) that advice.

He claims that EVERY house that an IP address was traced back to has ONE computer that is shared by everyone in said house and there is only ONE email address everyone in the house uses. I basically told him that was bullshit (not in those words). Maybe one house, but not all five.

He then told me that because of my ineptitude (yes, he said that), the principal and his wife had scheduled a press conference and I was going to look like an idiot for what I told him.

When I suggested the parents should be responsible, he said that if someone took his car, shot out my window, brought it back but a witness saw my car and license plate number, would that make him responsible. Um, yes? Duh.

I told him the parents of those kids who set the Florida brush fires are going to be responsible for the costs incurred to fight the fires. He told me he didn't know what I was talking about. I told him he should watch the news once in a while. He was not amused.

I actually apologized to this guy at the end of our conversation. He then told me that if I continued to "spout" my mouth off, I'd be getting more complaints like his. I told him in the 10 years I've been doing this, his was the first complaint and I usually get a thank you and am asked to help. He told me he wasn't going to thank me. I said fine and hung up.

Then I called the principal because something didn't "smell right." I never call a victim, but since this is high profile, I did.

Guess what? They never said they were going to schedule a press conference. The DA lied to me, the bastard (pardon my french). He never told them that every household involved only had one computer and one shared email address and the principal agreed with me that this was BS. He has been antagonistic and defensive with the victim from day one. They had a three-hour meeting with him last week with their attorney and he basically stonewalled them.

The victim thinks it's because the families involved have lived in town longer than he and his wife, they're well-known and prosperous and the DA doesn't want to "rock the boat." I hate small towns like that.

In every profession there are....(remember?). The DA is full of it and himself. His arguments don't hold up. The owner/registered user of the computer has allowed and condoned its use by the other members of the household, directly or indirectly, by making the computer physically assessible and readily available for use. Even using a farfetched variable that it was another adult rather than a minor, the onus is still with the owner. If it was an unsecured gun that was the weapon rather than a computer, you can bet the DA would be after everyone he could get, especially the owner.

For your end, at that time you made the best choice, in my opinion. It was a dead end with the DA. A polite apology and working things through with the victim in an advisory role is a totally professional approach and sets you high (even higher and higher!) above the DA.

As for making the info public, I put a bug in the ear of a reporter I know in Philly. . .since this case has already been in the media, she thinks she may be able to go after the Asst DA and ask why he's not doing a damned thing. Tee hee!

"I am following up my phone call with you earlier today and I take back any apologies I gave you. I do not like being lied to and you lied to me about Mr. and Mrs. (blank) putting together a press conference. This makes me wonder what else you lied to me about and I fully support the (victims) in any actions they decide to take to seek justice for what was done to Mr. (blank)."

And I heard from the victim again. He said that the Asst DA was more worried about being sued by the ACLU and the kid's parents then he was to help them. Pfft.

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